Frank and Caroline Mouris are independent filmmakers who
specialize in animation and collage. They have selected several
examples of their work and the work of other independent makers
to present a celebration of short films. They will provide film
commentary and answer questions immediately following the screenings.
The couple's 1973 classic short, Frank Film, an animated autobiography
of Frank Mouris, received an Academy Award and was selected in 1996
for inclusion in the National Film Registry, which preserves films
deemed to be "culturally, historically and esthetically important."
Frank Film, because of its innovative and energetic use of collage,
has exerted an influence on succeeding generations of animators.
The couple's 1999 short, Frankly Caroline, is a deliberately
comic and self-conscious attempt to create a film about Caroline
Mouris analogous to Frank Film. The film is as much about the
couple's collaborative process, and the squabbles inevitable in
a working relationship, as it is about Caroline herself.
Other short films by the Mouris's to be shown include Coney (1975),
a stop-motion documentary, Screentest (1975), an experimental
documentary funded by an American Film Institute grant, and Impasse
(1978), an example of abstract animation. The program will also
include excepts from the Mouris's feature documentary, LA LA,
Making it in L.A. (1979), which was funded by PBS, the Ford Foundation
and the National endowment for the Arts. Notable shorts by other
filmmakers will include Wheels by Stan Vanderbeek and Recreation
by Robert Breer.
Frank and Caroline Mouris are the creators of animated shorts
for Sesame Street as well as for other television programs, including
Nickelodeon, MTV, Disney, the Carton Network and the Comedy Channel.
Frank Mouris received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1975 and a Directing
Fellowship at the American Film Institute in 1978. Caroline Ahlfors
Mouris was born in Switzerland and received an MBA from Harvard
Business School in 1972.
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